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--- lb:syncretism [2025-09-05 17:03:10] – created ninjasr
+++ lb:syncretism [2025-12-29 18:54:12] (current) – [Syncretism] Added tags that were previously absent. ninjasr
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 ====== Syncretism ======
 I'm explaining this concept – as I understand it – here because I realized people may not be familiar with it.
+{{tag>mythology religion}}
 ===== What is syncretism? =====
 Syncretism is basically translating/melding/relating different religious/mythological traditions together. Don't worry, I'll explain what this means.
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 Another thing to consider is ‘folklorization’ or ‘existing without conflicting’ which is when one tradition becomes dominant, but the other tradition survives in the form of folklore...or just exists alongside another.\\
 You see this most clearly in [[lb:arthurian legend]]: there are just as many Christian elements as there are pagan elements. Though another example of such would be any European folklore you've heard. The Wild Hunt in Western Europe is probably a remnant of [[lb:Norse Mythology]] as scary folklore. Or Banshees and Leprechauns in Ireland.
+Related to melding, but distinct is assimilation...whereby one tradition consciously assimilates another for the sake of spreading the main tradition. This happens most with Christianity and Buddhism.\\
+Christianity would take local traditions and find a way to make them Christian. A possible example of this being Saint Brigid, who may or may not have just been an assimilation of the Celtic Goddess also named Brigid.\\
+Buddhism is actually pretty well-known for attaching itself to local traditions. It exists alongside traditional beliefs in China...and it attached itself to Shinto to such a degree that there are people who believe Shinto didn't exist before Buddhism.
 I'd consider all of this to broadly fall under ‘syncretism’.